Tag Archives: Ottawa

Monday Memories – Fireworks

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
February 24 2020

Back in 2005, Andrea and I headed over to Lac Leamy for fireworks as part of the annual Casino festival. I managed a few pics, but what I am reminded of most with the fireworks is a ride on the bus afterwards. We got on the commuter bus back to Ottawa, and ended up sitting at the very back. Two young kids ended up sitting next to me, and one fell asleep on the other, with the second on following not to long afterwards, and leaning on me. Their mother came to rescue them and I waved her off, just letting them sleep. One couple took a picture of them sleeping. But when we stopped at one point, and the mother came to get them, the other couple thought it was hilarious that the kids weren’t mine! Fun night. But it all started with fireworks.

Fireworks at Lac Leamy

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Monday Memories – Roses for Valentine’s Day

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
February 17 2020

I love roses in general, and while red are impressive, I confess I have more of an affinity for Osiana roses. They are somewhere between orange and pink, with many describing certain strands as peach-coloured. I discovered them at a flower shop in downtown Ottawa back in ’95 when I was working in a very drab office with high walls, twisting corridors, and no windows anywhere near me. Each week or so, I would pick up some flowers to brighten up the office.

Yet I often hesitate to shell out the big bucks for them as gifts. I’d rather go out for dinner than buy something a friend of me laments is “just going to die”. Valentine’s Day is the law of supply and demand at its worst. High demand, limited supply, very few substitutes for roses = high prices, almost predatory even. I remember sending some to a friend one time when she was feeling down and alone, and at the rate I was charged for Valentine’s Day, she could have had flowers every week for a month in just about any other month of the year.   » Read the rest

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Monday Memories – Tulip Festival in Ottawa

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
January 6 2020

The Tulip Festival in Ottawa is always awesome. We don’t always get the best weather for the show, sometimes spring comes early or late, but there is always one good weekend when the sun is out, the tulips are in bloom, and Dow’s Lake is a madhouse of people wandering around the flowers taking pictures. Back in 2005, we were living on Parkdale, and we decided we would do a short trek over to the park to see them. I had seen photos, but I had never really gone there specifically to see them and wander around, and I had been living in Ottawa for 12 years! What was wrong with me? (Don’t try to answer that, we don’t have that kind of time! hehehe)

First up were the pink ones, and I was quite taken with them.

Yellow and white were nice, but the seas of them didn’t do much for me.  » Read the rest

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Why am I so affected by this past weekend?

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 26 2018

Over the last 24 hours, I have struggled to put into words, even in my own mind, why I feel affected so strongly by this past weekend. On the face of it, there are no particular traumas direct enough to affect me:

  • I didn’t experience the storm that ravaged Ottawa — I missed the rain before 4:15 p.m. as I was at work, and by 5:15, I was at home with Jacob hanging out and playing board games by flashlight, no real issues;
  • One of the tornadoes hit our “area” and in theory it *could* affect me, but it wasn’t MY neighbourhood, proximity is more tangental in that it hit close to Jacob’s school. However, the school itself wasn’t affected and while the actual neighbourhood is near where I used to live, that was 20 years ago, and I never went over near the area that was hit…it’s pretty removed from my life, and I don’t feel any internal, personal resonance to the location; and,
  • I was without power for 60 hours, but well, so what?
  » Read the rest
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A sky tour with my new setup

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
June 24 2015

As I mentioned earlier, I have my Celestron NexStar 8SE setup finally working (Finally learning with the Celestron NexStar 8SE). So last Friday, when the night was promising good seeing, I headed over to the local park that I frequently use for viewing. I’ll confess it isn’t a “great” location in terms of light pollution. It’s just off Knoxdale and you can see streelights about half a block away, plus I’m in the middle of a suburb. It’s darker than most areas, and I have decent horizons, but that is in comparison to most suburban areas, not against a true dark sky site. But it’s close and I wanted to test the setup.

I did my new routine — vibration suppression pads, wifi link, app on phone, 17.3mm regular + 12 mm illuminated cross-hair reticle for centreing and aligning, stars far apart. When it finished, and the alignment was successful, I started with simply telling the scope to show me the moon.  » Read the rest

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